COLUMBUS – Prison union members took security concerns to the street in a protest Monday, calling for 400 additional correction officers that would cost the state upward of $29 million.

Ohio Civil Service Employees Association President Chris Mabe said the union wants to see at least 400 correction officers hired and increased communications with Department of Rehabilitation and Correction officials about upcoming changes.

"We want to be part of the conversation and, hopefully, come to some rational decisions. We all have experience in this department," Mabe said, adding that it seems as if decisions have already been made before planned meetings with officials.

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith refuted the allegations, pointing to not only regular contractual meetings with the union but also regional management meetings created by prisons director Gary Mohr and union officials to allow for additional opportunities to exchange ideas and concerns.

"We continue to meet with them in good faith" despite arbitration that began in April over the food service contract with Aramark, she added.

Gov. John Kasich continues to support Mohr and thinks the record-low recidivism of 27 percent for inmates released in 2010, compared with national average of 49 percent, is just one sign of the progress being made, Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols said.

"We have every confidence in the world in Director Mohr. In every metric we want to be measured in as a prison, Ohio is trending in the right direction," Nichols said.

However, Ohio's prison system also has had its share of negative attention across the nation — the recent escape of school shooter T.J. Lane, last year's suicides of serial-kidnapper Ariel Castro and death-row inmate Billy Slagle, and this summer's maggots in prison kitchens.

Mabe and other union officials all point to the incidents as proof there are not enough correction officers. Investigations in both suicides determined there had been guards who had falsified logs and skipped rounds. The investigation is ongoing into Lane's escape with two other prisoners.

Smith said the department has tried to add some correction staff, recently hiring 80 correction officers with part of $26.4 million allocated to prison operations during the mid-biennium review of the budget.

"They brought in a few more, but we need security posts," said Mal Corey, union president at Ross Correctional Institution. "We have one officer working in our recreation area where at any time there could be two, three, 400 inmates in there and one officer."

Although Mabe acknowledges that union officials are unsure of how many correction officers is enough, they have focused on 400 — the number lost since the deadly prison riot in Lucasville in 1993. The department reports the average annual cost for a correction officer, including benefits, is $72,914, making the cost of such an increase in staff about $29.2 million a year.

"People think this is about union membership, increasing union membership. This is about the safety of our prisons," Mabe said.

At Mansfield Correctional Institution, a correction officer is being pulled from third-shift security to clean the kitchens, said Doug Mosier, the union president in Mansfield.

"I've been there 27 years, and we've never had (correction officers) in there cleaning kitchens. We had our food service people come in and do that," he said.

Mabe alleged the same is happening at other prisons. Other concerns about Aramark include the high employee turnover, partially caused by firings. There were more than 100 Aramark firings in the past year for various reasons, including taking contraband into the prison and having inappropriate contact with inmates.

"We've had to prop them up consistently dealing with security issues, dealing with safety and sanitation issues inside those areas, and those things take away from the on-ground staff that need to provide security elsewhere in our facilities," Mabe said.

Smith declined to comment on the union's concerns about Aramark that have been raised in arbitration in an effort to "respect the (arbitration) process." However, she pointed out that the decision to hire a private food service vendor was an effort to close a $60 million budget shortfall without closing any units or cutting correction staff.

"The department shares the same goal of the union: to operate safe and secure prisons," Smith said, adding that Mohr will continue to meet with the union in labor management meetings to discuss issues.